ARMONK, N.Y. -- Aug. 10, 2017 -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that the State of Arizona has turned to IBM Cloud to help manage its daily mainframe operational consumption. Cloud managed services on IBM Z will provide State of Arizona agencies the agility to carry out some of Arizona's most critical IT operations including mainframe services and disaster recovery efforts.

As part of this new agreement, cloud managed services will be implemented by the State of Arizona's shared technology services organization, Arizona Strategic Enterprise Technology (ASET), to develop and execute the statewide information technology strategy and to offer capabilities, services, and infrastructure to additional State agencies. ASET is responsible for running a centralized group for monitoring and overseeing high-risk technology projects across State agencies that choose to utilize these services.

IBM's unique ability in the market to offer trusted, effective, and scalable IBM Cloud capabilities met the State's strict security requirements across its various agencies and institutions. ASET will operate the cloud managed services environment and provide mainframe services to multiple customers.

"This agreement gives our customers a new level of flexibility and accessibility to help deliver services more efficiently to Arizonans," said Morgan Reed, State of Arizona Chief Information Officer. "Additionally, the State's move to a managed service model, where we only pay for what we use, reduces our capital and risk and ensures long-term continuity of operations."

These new cloud managed services will help move the State of Arizona from a fixed cost to a variable cost model across agencies and help its agencies improve several critical processing challenges, including citizen health benefits, public safety applications, and tax returns. In addition, the State of Arizona will be able to scale computing storage capacity as needed, and implement disaster recovery services.

"Delivering our IBM Cloud capabilities to the State of Arizona will help many of its agencies transform their computing capacity and execute their IT strategy more securely and efficiently than ever before," says Philip Guido, General Manager of IBM Infrastructure Services. "We believe this can serve as a model for other states to take advantage of the trusted history of the IBM mainframe to improve the everyday lives of their citizens."

About IBM Global Technology Services

IBM Global Technology Services offers end-to-end IT consulting and business services supported by an unparalleled global delivery network that is transforming its business to lead in an era of Cognitive and Cloud. As a cloud services integrator, GTS is managing the services and underlying infrastructure in an integrated and unified way. It is modernizing clients' IT environments to help them meet the increasingly complex customer demands. GTS provides clients with innovative technology solutions that help them to improve their business processes and in turn, profitability.